Cogenetic late Pleistocene rhyolite and cumulate diorites from Augustine Volcano revealed by SIMS 238U-230Th dating of zircon, and implications for silicic magma generation by extraction from mush

Augustine Volcano, a frequently active andesitic island stratocone, erupted a late Pleistocene rhyolite pumice fall that is temporally linked through zircon geochronology to cumulate dioritic blocks brought to the surface in Augustine's 2006 eruption. Zircon from the rhyolite yield a ²³⁸U-²³⁰Th age of ∼25 ka for their unpolished rims, and their interiors yield a bimodal age populations at ∼26 ka and a minority at ∼41 ka. Zircon from dioritic blocks, ripped from Augustine's shallow magmatic plumbing system and ejected during the 2006 eruption, have interiors defining a ∼26 ka age population that is indistinguishable from that for the rhyolite; unpolished rims on the dioritic zircon are dominantly younger (≤12 ka) indicating subsequent crystallization. Zircon from rhyolite and diorite overlap in U, Hf, Ti, and REE concentrations although diorites also contain a second population of high-U, high temperature grains. Andesites that brought dioritic blocks to the surface in 2006 contain zircon with young (≤9 ka) rims and a scattering of older ages, but few zircon that crystallized during the 26 ka interval. Both the Pleistocene-age rhyolite and the 2006 dioritic inclusions plot along a whole-rock compositional trend distinct from mid-Holocene–present andesites and dacites, and the diorites, rhyolite, and two early Holocene dacites define linear unmixing trends often oblique to the main andesite array and consistent with melt (rhyolite) extraction from a mush (dacites), leaving behind a cumulate amphibole-bearing residue (diorites). Rare zircon antecrysts up to ∼300 ka from all rock types indicate that a Quaternary center has been present longer than preserved surficial deposits.